Iraq: Catholic priest says: "Christians live in fear"

A Catholic priest in Baghdad has told the Christian Peacemaker team in Amman that the situation for Christians in Iraq is grim. In a message he wrote: "There is no security for anybody. Many Christians are targets of kidnapping, more now than at any time. Some say the police are involved, nobody can know the truth. We are now paralyzed, everyone watches through his keyhole. We read, watch and listen, but who can analyze? So we wait now and pray." On Monday CPT members in Iraq, Le Anne Clausen and Stewart Vriesing, recorded the testimony of a man who identified himself in one of the recently-released photographs of naked, hooded prisoners. His account of the brutal and abusive treatment he received at the hands of the US forces corroborates recent stories that have received wide publicity in the media. The man who said he had also been a political prisoner under Saddam Hussein's regime named several interrogators and soldiers allegedly involved in abuse, and he claimed that Brigadier General also knew what was happening. CPT, who have maintained an almost constant presence in Iraq since October 2002 presented the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) with a dossier of statistical data compiled from seventy-two case studies of the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees, including torture, in January. To read the full reports visit: www.cpt.org/